New programs aim to ease National Guard return from war

New programs aim to ease Guard return from war

By Michael Virtanen - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Mar 30, 2008 14:33:43 EDT

LATHAM, N.Y. — When Capt. Brian Rockwell returned from Iraq last fall, like most soldiers he just wanted to be home. Four months later, though, he was starting to think he might like another mission.

“It wears on you when you’re over there,” Rockwell said. But there’s another set of stresses back here. “It’s an adjustment.”

Unlike the regular Army, whose soldiers usually return from combat zones to the steady rhythms of military bases after a couple weeks’ leave, National Guard troops have been leaving their comrades at the airport and go straight back into civilian life.

Now, with almost half its troop strength having gone to Iraq, the New York Army National Guard is changing the way they come back. Instead of cutting them loose for the first 90 days, Guardsmen will be required — and families invited — to attend weekend retreats at upscale hotels after 30 days and 60 days.

The full program starts with the 104th Military Police Battalion in mid-April. New York needed the recent change in Defense Department policy to do it, following Minnesota’s lead. Now 14 states are doing it. But officers said Maj. Gen. Joseph Taluto, now adjutant general for New York following his own Iraq tour, and his wife, Susan, provided a push to get the program running here.

At a congressional hearing this month, several people testified about the sometimes unresponsive — but improving — mental health system for military personnel with problems from prolonged warfare and lengthy deployments. The increase in military suicides has dramatized the issue. The Army said recently that as many as 121 soldiers committed suicide last year, more than double the number reported in 2001.
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